Thursday, March 30, 2017

Book Showcase: AMY'S STORY by Anna Lawton

After Elena Ferrante, another powerful Italian voice emerges to tell us a tale of immigration with two strong women characters at its center. Amy's Story unfolds on the background of American history, from the late 60's up until 2011, and takes us through the timeline of how Italian-native Amy, full name America, creates her success story.Amy experiences love, heartbreak, friendship, obstacles, success, and more as she moves from Italy to New York City to live near her American father. Following in her father's footsteps, Amy becomes a successful publisher. Her story is intertwined with Stella, her childhood friend, whose unfinished memoir she intends to publish. As Amy edits the manuscript, Stella's life is revealed as she also leaves Italy with her American lover Jim, a heartthrob who conceals his sensitive nature under a bravado façade.Stella faces career achievements, setbacks and heartbreaking love as her journey runs parallel to major historical events ―the Vietnam War, student protests and the Kent State shooting, the birth of radicalism and feminism, presidential elections and assassinations, immigration, the Watergate scandal, up to the 9/11 attack and beyond― providing an interesting commentary on the highlights in history that influenced the development of American society over the past 40 years and brought about the current outcome.Additional captivating characters complete the picture and sustain the action: Steve, Stella's husband, conformist and uninspiring; Nik, a passionate and extravagant Russian intellectual; Rosa, once a maid at Amy's grandmother's country estate and now married to the owner of a New York pizzeria; and others.Stella's memoir never gets published, because Amy transforms it into a very successful novel. This twist will have readers reimagining the entire story, and Amy and Stella's tale will remain with them for a long time.

"Amy's Story is simply spellbinding. This is a story at once about identity, love and social upheaval; a woman's journey from old world to new; from Italy to America. Mysterious, brave and captivating."—Joe McGinniss Jr., author of Carousel Court and The Delivery Man"Lawton's characters connect to words with dynamic interactions and intellectual alacrity. This author's voice manages both the interior lives of her characters and the connective tissue of their worlds. Anna Lawton's mastery of story orchestrates the best out of 'situation and plot,' with a full range of motion using the entire emotional alphabet."—Grace Cavalieri, Producer/host, "The Poet and the Poem" from the Library of Congress"From the collapsing towers of 9/11 to the lyrical groves of northern Italy, the author ingeniously morphs Amy's Story into a journey across America and back and forth across time. Along the way we meet a cohort of colorful characters, witness several romances, and there are wars and politics, too—all woven into a mesmerizing narrative that unspools like a good film. Anna Lawton is not only a scholar of the first rank, but a deft and artful novelist with a flair for the unexpected in her work."—Louis Menashe, author of Moscow Believes in Tears: Russians and Their Movies

Meet the author:

Anna Lawton, born in Italy, was a professor of Russian literature at Purdue University, and later taught courses in visual culture and film studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of three scholarly books and numerous articles and essays in academic collections. Her book, Imaging Russia 2000: Film and Facts, received the CHOICE Award as Outstanding Academic Title 2005. Her first novel, Album di Famiglia, was published in Italy and is currently being translated into English.

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